Poultry picking apparatus



I Jan. 7, 1947.' Q Fl JEROME y 2,413,712

A POULTRY PICKING APPARATUS Filed NOV. 15, 1944 Patented Jan. 7, 1947 UNITED STATES TENT OFFICE 2,413,712 PGULTRY PICKING APPARATUS George F. Jerome, Fort Wayne, Ind. l Application November I3, 1944, Serial No. 563,184

iabiaims. (Ci. ifi-11.1)

The present invention relates to the plucking or feather-removing units of a poultry-picking machine. rIhese units are commonly referred to as picking fingers and, preferably, they are made of rubber, either natural or synthetic, so that they have considerable resilience. It is the principal purpose ci my invention to provide a picking ringer and a mounting therefor whereby I am able to get a large number of effective feather removing projections upon the Working part of a picking iinger.

It is the common experience oi those familiar with the art of picking poultry by means of rotating picking ingers that it is necessary to have shoulders or pro'ections along the surfaces of the fingers that enga-ge the feathers on the fowl. ifi/Iy invention contemplates the provision of a picking finger v.vhich is so shaped at its base that it can befmounted on a supporting member against a shoulder to prevent rotation of the finger. This picking fin. er is then shaped up to a substantially U-shape toward its top so as to get the advantage of a multiplicity of ieatherengaging projections Without sacrificing the strength of the finger.

It is also a purpose of my invention to provide a novel assembly oi picking fingers for better handling.

`The detailed features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the folloiving description, reference being made to the a-ccompanying drawing wherein a preferred form of the invention is shown. It is tc be understood, however, that the drawing and description are illustrative only and are not to be taken as limiting the invention except insofar as it is limited by the claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional view through a portion of a poultry-picking machine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view through the picking finger employed, the View being taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the picking finger.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, this invention is an improvement upon the poultrypicking machine shown in my prior cfr-pending application, Serial No. 374,271, filed January 13, 1941, for Poultry-picking machine. In that machine, the multiplicity oi picking fingers are oarried upon oppositely extending bars that are mounted upon a supporting disk. The disk is, of course, driven by a suitable power source.

In Figure 1, I show a disk 5, upon which I mount a cast bracket which is provided with oppositeiy extending armsk 6a and 6b. The bracket has a lug 6c which is secured to the disk 5 by suitable bolts 1. Each of the arms is provideo. with a series of stepped faces 8, 9, It, Il andl I2, which provide seats for a series of picking fingers The picking fingers are rectangular in cross-section and it will be noted that there is an adjacent shoulder alongside each of the faces 8 to i2 inciusive and there is a projecting i3 on each of the faces 8 to l2 on which the fingers Iii are mounted. As shown best in Figure 2, the finger Ici has an aperture Ie eX- tending up from the bottom thereof. This aperture is provided with segments I5 which engage in grooves or annular recesses Il cut in the pegs I3, when the iingers are forced on to the to fasten the ngers on the pegs.

It will be notedA that the seats 8 to I2 inclusive are set at diierent levels with respect to the disk 5 so that a line drawn along the tops of the picking iingers describes an arc of a circle. I find that this is quite useful in the poultry-picking machine, as the fowl body ts into this curved contour more readily than it its against a straight cylinder such as is commonly-found in picking machines.

Referring now-to the picking finger la, this finger is provided with a channel at I8 extending into the aperture It and extending downwardly from the top of the picking finger to a short distancev above the end of the peg It. The extent of thechannel I3 is shown clearly in Figure rI'his channel divides the Working end of the ringer into two parallel sections IS and 2Q, backed up by a solid Wall section 2l. In order to take advantage of both sections I9 and 2n to provide picking projections, I notch both sections with notches 22, 23 and 24. The notch 22 is of relatively short depth. Notch 23 is of still greater depth, and notch 24 is deeper than the notch 23. The critical cross-section of the finger thus increases frorn the picking end toward the base, and when stress is applied, the finger bends along a smooth curve from the end of the peg I3 to the tip of the linger. The greatest thickness of material, and thus the greatest strength, exists at the tip of the peg It. The flexing of the nger must take place from this point to the tip of the iinger. The opening of the channel I8 at some distance above the tip of the peg I3 gives adequate strength to the finger at the critical point.

I have found that a much better picking opera.- tion can be obtained by providing feather-engaging projections that are larger and more numerous. It has been proposed to provide tubular iingers with closely spaced annular ribs, but this does not provide projections that are of the right shape to accomplish my result. As shown in the drawing, I have six projections on each finger, and each projection is relatively narrow crosswise of the nger. The projections are farther apart lengthwise of the iinger than their width. The projections, therefore, are capable of entering small indentations such as are found on the wings and legs of the fowl, due to the transverse action of each channel wall under pressure.

From the foregoing description, it is believed that the nature and advantages of my invention will be clear to those skilled in this art.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A picking finger assembly for poultry pick` ing machines, comprising in combination a support, a series of linger mounting members thereon and resilient lingers secured to said members, each linger having its free end offset lengthwise with respect to adjacent fingers so that a line joining the tips of the lingers describes a curve with the convex side toward the fingers.

2. A picking nger assembly for poultry picking machines, comprising in combination a support, a series of finger mounting members thereon and resilient lingers secured to said members, said support having said members mounted thereon in stepped relation whereby to position the tips of said fingers on a curved line,

3. A picking linger assembly for poultry picking machines, comprising the combination with a supporting disk of arms extending in opposite directions from said disk, said arms also curving in a radial direction away from said disk, and picking lingers mounted on said arms.

e. A picking linger assembly for poultry picking machines, comprising the combination with a supporting disk of arms extending in opposite directions from said disk, said arms also curving in a radial direction away from said disk, and picking iingers mounted on said arms, the arms having flat faces with nger securing means thereon and guide Shoulders alongside said faces to prevent turning of the ngers.

5. A picking finger assembly for poultry picking machines, comprising an elongated resilient body, means to mount one end of the body on a support, the other end of the body having narrowv feather enga-ging sections spaced longitudifeather engaging part of the finger into separate picking surfaces.

7. A picking iinger for poultry picking mai chines, comprising an elongated resilient body, l

means to mount one end of the body on a support, the other end of the body having spaced longitudinally running narrow feather engaging sections extending toward the secured end, the sections being notched transversely on their working faces.

8. A picking linger of resilient material, comprising a tubular mounting section interiorly ribbed to receive a mounting peg, and a picking section projecting outwardly from the mounting section, said picking section being channel shaped in cross section.

9. Av picking iinger of resilient material, comprising a tubular mounting section to receive a mounting peg, and a picking section projecting outwardly from the mounting section, said picking section being channel shaped in cross section, the channel walls being notched.

l0. A picking finger for poultry picking machines, comprising an elongated resilient body, means to mount one end of the body on a support, said body having its working face divided longitudinally and transversely into a plurality of spaced apart projections for engaging the body of a fowl.

11. A picking ringer for poultry picking machines, comprising an elongated resilient body, means to mount one end of the body on a support, said body having its working face divided longitudinally and transversely into a plurality of spaced apart projections, said projections being of greater depth toward the free end of the finger.

l2. In a poultry picking machine, a resilient picking linger, a mounting peg for the finger having recesses therein between its ends, said ringer having a tubular mounting section with internal projecting segments engaged in said recesses to fasten the iinger in place, said inger having a picking section extending from said mounting section, the picking section having a front wall provided with relatively large spaced projections and a substantially smooth back Wall.

GEORGE F. JEROME. 

